antietam velo club hagerstown race

[dirtyphotons]

anybody goin?

[*new*guy]

I'll be whitewater rafting in WV this weekend.

be sure to post a race report and have fun:)

[vpower]

I'll be there.

I'll be on my new bike too. I sold out and got a gearie.

[dirtyphotons]

i heard (and saw).

well, i'll forgive you, got my eye on an orbea frame ;)

[Lithuania]

not me. i work on saturdays im doing a race on sunday instead

[Ghostman]

I'll be there slugging it out in the C''s.

Dirtyphotons, what is your give name? Are you racing C's again? Were you at Lilypons?

[dirtyphotons]

i'm john bavier (not yet registered, and they ****ed up my result for charm city).

i wasn't at lilypons, i was doing the ms150 last weekend. i will be out there with the c's again. blue iro singlespeed, see you there!

[dirtyphotons]

saturday’s race was in hagerstown, md. for those who don’t know it, all you need to do is drive out to the boonies, and then go an hour further. i left my house at 7 a.m. to make sure i got out there in time.

when i got there i realized that after replacing my bearings (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=347132) i’d forgotten to reinstall my freewheel (don’t do drugs kids). ****. with no chance of driving back to get it and no replacement wheel i was stuck riding fixed. with a ratio of 42/16 (71.3 gear inches), which is just stupid high for a cross race.

barry, a friend of the shop very awesomely offered the use of his 10 speed road wheel, and if i’d had some time and tools i’d probably have played with the spacers to make it singlespeedable. but it was time to get to the line and there was no way my 1/8″ chain was going to work on a 10 sp cassette so i accepted my fate. you go to war with the army you have, right?

i lined up at the back. i wasn’t sure how this was all going to go off but i was pretty sure i wasn’t going to contend for this one. i certainly didn’t want my stupidity to lead to a crash so i decided to take it conservatively for the first lap.

i spent most of that first lap picking places to pass, and by the end i felt like i was in the top 3/4, maybe 2/3. the second lap was mostly pacing the guys i was riding around, and anticipating bad corners/dismounts.

i was definitely a crowd favorite, i got a lot of “yeah fixed gear!” and one guy said “you’ve got to be kidding me” as i passed him.

as i was rounding the corner towards the end of the second lap i heard a bell that was definitely not of the cow variety. and through the nonsense that he was spewing i heard the announcer say “1 lap left!” i hadn’t been passed so i knew i hadn’t been lapped. could this really be a three lap race?

the last lap my knees were really starting to hurt. i picked off a couple more guys and the finish was flat and paved so my equipment was actually appropriate for the final sprint. turns out the race was indeed short, about 32 minutes for me.

after the race i was looking at the results and didn’t see my number after a quick scan. one more, still nothing. i was looking where i thought i’d placed, between 30th and 55th place. great, two races in a row they didn’t even count me. i was starting to have serious doubts about the officiating of these races when someone said “hey dude, you got 23rd.” and sure enough, there i was. that would mean that i did about the same on a fixed gear with a ridiculous ratio as i’d done on a reasonably geared freewheel two weeks ago. which i guess is an improvement if you choose to look at it that way.

i’ve really been enjoying racing singlespeed, and fixed was an adventure, but i must admit i’ve got my eye on a gearie frame. we’ll see if it materializes this season or if it turns into a winter project. either way i’m stoked to line up for the next one.

-john

[ryand]

John, if you want to try racing geary/coasty, I'll let you ride my bike for a race that I'm not going to be at. Or maybe I'll even ride yours one race and throw up on your tob tube.

[Lithuania]

thats freaking awesome john! I want to race fixed gear sometime. That would involve me learning to ride fixed though.

[jpearl]

23rd on a fixed 'cross rig! Dude, that's friggin' awesome, and a badass DC stamp on that race as well. Who knows, maybe that'll inspire me to flip the back wheel on my Langster and try riding fixed sometime.

Great job, and an awesome story to boot!

[Lithuania]

who won the c race?

[dirtyphotons]

i think someone from hagerstown, i was a ways back so i didn't see. at the end they only had place and race number listed so i didn't see the name or team.

[Lithuania]

i wonder if it was the same guy that won the last two races

[dirtyphotons]

singlespeed surly guy? nah, he wasn't there.

[Lithuania]

i hope he starts racing the B race since he could probably win that too. Hell at lilypon after winning the c race he finished 7th in the b. He was riding a 48x17.